Neil Ramsey - Director secretary at Northern Counties Builders Federation (NCBF)
Can you tell us about NCBF?
The NCBF is a long-established trade association bringing together construction companies and contractors operating in the North East of England.
It first delivered the voice of the industry in 1898, including the need to train and provide long term sustainable jobs within construction, negotiate with the unions, deal with the legislative challenges, improve working conditions and be a political voice representing the industry.
It is still that today. The principles remain but it no longer concentrates only on the needs of the employers.
We are here to help future proof the North East construction sector by raising the profile of our regional members, supporting training and apprenticeships.
What is your role?
I am director secretary. I provide secretarial and membership support to the members of the Federation. I have been an active member of the Board of the NCBF since 1990.
What are the biggest challenges facing your members and the construction sector?
I believe the regional construction industry is being treated poorly when it comes to procurement policies (frameworks) and selection criteria.
This has resulted in SMEs being excluded from contract opportunities when they are perfectly capable of delivering. Instead, in my opinion, contractors with no experience within or commitment to the region, are being given opportunities, and this then leads to a subsequent reduction in the number of regionally based SMEs.
This is where Construction Alliance North East (CAN) plays a crucial role in supporting regional contractors to share one voice and to develop a structure to support local procurement.
We are also facing a skills gap. The people make the industry, the ability to deliver the skills needed for the demand of the ever more complex designs and specifications, requires constant skills upgrading and specialisation. The skills and people needed on site to deliver building projects are hugely undervalued.
In 1898, construction companies were one stop shops. All the skills to deliver a project were available via the directly employed workforce. The modern-day SME relies on its own in-house skills but also specialist skills are provided through the supply chain. The NCBF has, within its membership, both specialists and general contractors and all recognise the most economic, productive and reliable way to sustain a business is to ensure that skills to deliver are employed directly. The biggest challenge facing the membership at this time is the provision of those skills.
You were previously chair at a regional and national level for the National Federation of Builders, can you tell us more about this?
I represented the SME construction industry as regional and national chair of the NFB and gained an in-depth insight into the sector on a national basis, the needs being no different in any region of the country.
While recognising that the agenda of economies of scale through large framework agreements can be appropriate in some circumstances, it should not be seen as appropriate to all sizes of construction projects. Large contractors dictate the agenda on procurement and, although not interested in smaller scale projects, are selected to carry them out within frameworks as the selection criteria often excludes SMEs as tier one contractors.
In order to secure work, the regional SME has to contract to the larger contractor. As recent events highlight, the failure of a large contractor has equally catastrophic repercussions on members of its supply chain.
The SMEs are one step removed from payment and, therefore, suffer issues of cashflow by more extensive and manipulative payment terms imposed upon them.
In the North East we have many regional contractors who see themselves as Tier One contractors capable of delivering contracts within a set value range.
The industry should use them to deliver appropriate contracts, to provide sustainable employment skills and careers in the region which remain in the region, and the wealth generated by those jobs becomes a driver for economic demand and growth here in the North East.
www.ncbf.uk